You’re still riding on the magic bus. Or your tight, sequined pants still charm under the light of the disco ball. Maybe your commitment to big hair and jean jackets will never die, or perhaps you still cruise the early rap scene. You might even be new to the corporate world and thinking that with the first decade of the new millennium nearly past and its techno-retro-Y2K vibe still ringing in your ears, the time we’re about to talk about is too far away to care. Whatever the case, it’s time to realize that time will come. That time is retirement, and the time that comes before it is the time that has come now: time to talk about your 401k retirement plan.

You might be self-employed and have set up your own individual 401k. You might be enjoying the large pre-tax contributions you can make toward that end. Maybe you have a job with a larger business and have bought into their 401k plan for you. You’re liking how you can pick some of the funds your money gets invested in. Whichever scenario you find yourself in with regards to your 401k retirement plan, it’s time to broaden your horizons before retirement hits. You don’t want to fall off the magic bus with your 401k still in your pocket, after all.

See, there are some things about your 401k retirement plan you probably don’t know. You might have heard of things like rollovers, hardship withdrawals, and loans to yourself, but you might not know when they apply to you and when they don’t. The first thing to do is to start with your 401k provider. If you are self-employed, you probably have your 401k set up through some sort of fund that will provide for most of the administration services of the money. (What we mean by that is you still have a 401k provider to go to.) The important thing about talking to your 401k provider, though, is knowing what questions to ask. Nothing is worse to a financial expert than to have to sit down and explain the basics. (Unless we’re talking crooked financial experts here, in which case they would love to run you through the basics at the expense of explaining the better options available.)

So when it’s time to talk about your 401k retirement plan, it’s time to do some research on it. Chances are that your 401k provider has already given you some material on the plan. If your employer is your provider, you probably sat through an orientation session back some time after you were hired. If you are your own provider, you might not have had the compulsory Friday afternoon meeting, instead being given a DVD or just a brochure to familiarize yourself with the plan. Well, this is your wakeup call: when retirement comes, you don’t want it coming out of left field. Familiarize yourself with the basics of your 401k retirement plan and then find a creative financial advisor who can give you a legal—but broad-minded—perspective on how to proceed in preparing for retirement.